Meaning of Ristelle
by Pikatwig
Summary: Estelle wonders what it is that Yuri meant when he called her and Rita 'Ristelle' and goes around the rest of the team in order to get some answers. One-shot. RitaXEstelle, with minor YuriXJudith. In honor of Pride Month. 160th story.


My 160th story and my first story that's done for a _Tales of_ game. Bit of a double milestone here.

To give a slight explanation of my exposure to the _Tales of _series, the first game I ever saw of it was Tales of Symphonia. That was around… 2013 or 2014. I don't recall what year it was, but I remember seeing it around the time that Kamen Rider Gaim was airing. I first heard of the Vesperia characters because of Project X Zone, so… there's that. One interesting thing about that though… I ended up learning about the plot point of Estelle being placed under mind control before I knew anything about the plot of their game. She ends up in a similar state in the second Project X zone and when Yuri and Flynn see her, they remark with something to the effect of "not again". Though, small thought, I can honestly imagine Rita trying to find a way to go into the Street Fighter world to beat up M. Bison for doing that. I eventually learned about the game and its characters thanks to my buddy Sean streaming Vesperia after its recent rerelease came out.

As you can tell by this story's title… this will focus on Rita and Estelle. I hope that you enjoy it. It may be a little on the short side in comparison to what I usually write, but I'm not totally sure just yet since… opening blurb.

Tales of Vesperia belongs to Bandai Namco and its other owners.

* * *

The members of Brave Vesperia all sat around a campfire and were all in the middle of doing various things as they prepared for another day. Estelle simply sat by the campfire with an expression that showed she was lost in thought.

"What… could he have meant by that…?" she muttered.

* * *

"_Hey, it's time to go! Come on, Ristelle!" Yuri shouted to Estelle and Rita._

"_Ri… stelle?" Estelle repeated in confusion, not seeing Rita blush._

"_We're two different people, you know!" Rita shouted back._

* * *

Estelle then snapped out of her thoughts when she heard some of the others talking. She looked towards the others, but saw that Rita and Patty were both not there at the moment.

"...wonder where they are…" Estelle muttered.

"Are you alright, Lady Estellise?" Flynn asked as he sat down next to her.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just a little lost in thought," Estelle informed, "Yuri said something earlier and I'm just trying to figure out what he meant by it."

Flynn's expression shifted to a bit of an annoyed one, yet he kept his voice calm as he spoke, "What'd he say?"

"He called me and Rita 'Ristelle' earlier."

The blonde knight just sighed as he got up, "I'll be sure to talk to him when I see him next…"

Estelle just nodded a bit before Flynn walked off in a huff. She looked around to see that Yuri seemed to be talking to Judith, that Karol and Raven appeared to be conversing, and that Patty and Rita were still gone. She calmly exhaled before she got up and headed over to where Yuri and Judith were.

* * *

"Oh, Estelle," Yuri commented as he saw her walk over.

"Yuri, I wanted to ask you about something," Estelle informed.

"Alright," he shrugged.

"What exactly did you mean when you said 'Ristelle' earlier?" Estelle asked.

Yuri simply let the question hang for a moment, yet his expression didn't convey anything. He eventually gained a small smirk, "Oh, Estelle. Even after everything we've gone through, you're still so naive."

"...naive about what?"

Judith began to snicker at what was happening in front of her.

"Do you know what he meant by that?" Estelle asked.

"Sorry, Estelle. You're going to need to figure that one out without us," Judith informed.

Estelle just sighed before she walked off.

"Wouldn't expect somebody as sheltered as her to understand yuri anyway…" Yuri joked.

"Have you heard jokes like that a lot in your life?" Judith couldn't help but question.

"...like you wouldn't believe…"

* * *

"Karol, Raven, do you think you could help me with something?" Estelle asked as she walked over to the two.

"Oh, you need MY help with something?" Raven gleefully responded before he quickly stood at attention.

"I'm concerned on so many levels if you need to ask him for help…" Karol stated bluntly.

"I'm asking you both…" Estelle informed, "Yuri called me and Rita 'Ristelle' earlier and I'm confused by what it meant. I tried asking him, but he wouldn't answer."

Both Karol and Raven just blinked a little in response to this. Raven began to laugh a little about the question while Karol just gave a confused tilt of his head.

"Honestly… I don't know what he could've meant by that either…" Karol admitted while Raven just continued to laugh about what he was told.

All Estelle could do was sigh as she realized she wouldn't be getting an answer from either of them as well. She then proceeded back over to the campfire and just continued to sit by it for a while.

* * *

"Hey, we're back," Rita called out as she brought over some fish and a sleeping Patty, "She fell asleep and I couldn't wake her up."

"That's fine. I'll get started on cooking," Yuri responded as he took the fish off of Rita's hands, "By the way, Estelle's looking to talk to you about something."

"Oh… ok," Rita nodded.

* * *

"Hi Estelle," Rita greeted.

"Oh, hi Rita. When'd you get back?"

"Just now," Rita informed before she sat down next to Estelle, "Yuri said that you wanted to talk to me."

"...you remember how he called us 'Ristelle' earlier? I just want to know what he meant by that and nobody's been able to answer me…"

A blush formed on Rita's face in response to the question, but she quickly regained her composure, "Well… um… how do I word this…?"

Estelle then took Rita's hands and held them, making Rita's blush increase, "Please… you're the only one who can tell me."

Rita's blush only grew in response to this contact and she began to stammer a little. Estelle then pulled her hands away, allowing Rita to mostly regain her composure, and then simply gave a quizzical look to the brunette.

"...let me ask you this. Do you understand what it means to want somebody in a relationship?" Rita inquired.

"Yeah. There are characters in books I've read that I want to see end up together by the end," Estelle responded, "But what does that have to do with-"

"One thing people do for couples is to find a way to combine their names. In most cases, it's usually the person who is the dominant or the leader of the relationship that has their part of the combined name first," Rita began to explain before she motioned over to Yuri and Judith, "Take them for example. One way to combine their names would be, say… 'Juri' or 'Yudith'."

"Okay… but…" Estelle began to say before the realization hit her, "Wait… so what Yuri was saying was…"

"He thinks we'd make a cute couple or something like that. 'Ristelle' is something along the lines of what I said for 'Juri' or 'Yudith'..."

Estelle then began to blush a little bit in response to this realization. Rita had her own blush as she began to get up, but was stopped by Estelle grabbing her hand.

"...Estelle?"

"Do you… like me like that?"

Rita was silent for a moment as her blush ended up covering her entire face due to the question. She then slowly turned to face Estelle and gave a small nod in response.

"Really…?"

"I have… for a long time…" Rita admitted, "And seeing what happened to you after the old man kidnapped you and gave you to Alexei… I was so scared, but rescuing you was all I could think of."

Estelle gasped softly in response to this as Rita sat down and got closer to her.

"I don't want to see that happen to you ever again. And if it does… I'd make sure the person who hurt you would regret it…"

"Rita…"

"But… I want to know… do you have the same feelings for me? I always thought that Flynn or Yuri would be more your type…" Rita commented.

"Flynn's like a brother to me. As for Yuri…? I'm not to sure about my feelings for him… but what I do know… is that I have feelings for you…" Estelle admitted.

The two girls just smiled at each-other before they happily hugged each-other.

* * *

"And mission accomplished," Yuri commented as he saw the two girls in the middle of their tender moment.

"Yuri, you do realize her family will never approve of this, right?" Flynn nearly shouted.

"Honestly, I think they might if it's what makes Estelle happy," Yuri responded.

"Plus, Estelle can just leave and stay with Rita if they don't approve," Judith added.

Flynn attempted to say something in response before he just walked off in an annoyed huff. Yuri and Judith then high-fived in response.

* * *

The next morning soon rolled around and Brave Vesperia was working on packing up camp. Rita and Estelle stood hand-in-hand as they watched Yuri and Judith cleaning up the tents. Estelle then slowly approached them and cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Something up?" Yuri asked.

"You better hurry up if you don't wanna be left behind, Juri," Estelle said before she walked off to rejoin Rita.

Yuri couldn't help but snicker in response to this. Judith then simply turned to him with a bit of a coy look on her face.

"Looks like somebody's trying to tell us something…" Judith remarked.

Rita and Estelle simply laughed a little before they resumed holding hands. The other members of the guild soon finished packing and the team headed off for their next destination…

* * *

Cutting it a bit close with getting this out on time for Pride Month. Part of the reason this took a while was due to summer classes and partly because I struggled a little on figuring out how to get the story to move forward. I didn't really plan this out much beyond having Rita be the one to explain the meaning of the title to Estelle and then have one of them toss the joke back at Yuri's face with 'Juri'.

Not totally sure what my favorite part is to this. I did have fun with this and I am hoping that you enjoyed this.

Just Live More.


End file.
